


Culinary Quest XI

by Nimaka



Category: Dragon Quest XI
Genre: Erdrian food tour, Friendship, Gen, Hero | Luminary is Named Eleven | El (Dragon Quest XI), Spoilers for like the whole game, Sylvando is group mom, and the dragons, they eat the monsters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:28:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23943109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nimaka/pseuds/Nimaka
Summary: "Luminary, you mean to tell me..." Hendrik took a deep breath, "that youeatthedragons?!"Eleven was busy hunkering down on a piece of meat to respond, but he did look up to meet Hendrik's incredulous stare."Well, duh," Erik answered for him, "that's why it's called Dragon Quest."A small smile reached his lips.This was why Eleven liked Erik.---Eleven finds himself on a culinary quest just as much as a world-saving one.
Relationships: Camus | Erik & Hero | Luminary
Comments: 26
Kudos: 48





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, you. Yes, the person who hasn't beaten the game yet! Turn back now, I'm warning you :0 spoilers ahead!  
> Hope you enjoy! ^^

Eleven grew up and lived on a certain principle. If it looked good, eat it.

Growing up in such a poor little village like Cobblestone, he couldn't be picky with what they ate. They could only import so much from traveling merchants, the harvests didn't always go so well with the hills on all sides blocking out sunlight, and his Mum already worked so hard for the both of them. They had to get creative.

Slime stew was a staple. It was completely liquidfied once it'd been melted down, making it easy to transport, too. It was just a tad salty and not much else, making it a good base for stews, but that faint hint was also good for making little frozen treats in the winter. Those were Gemma's favorites.

Fungoul mushrooms were his Mum's specialty. She could roast them just right, or sear them in a pan with just a few herbs and spices to make them come out meaty. She showed him where to look to tell that all the poison went away after it's been cooked long enough. Of course, his mushrooms were never as good as hers.

She always called him her little soldier, but the truth was, he only fought the local monsters so much because he just liked to eat.

Cobblestonians made do, and from what El could see, why wouldn't they, with food running about aplenty and fields that didn't grow quite like they used to?

There were just so many monsters out there, each with their own flavors and textures. El knew in this small little corner of the world, he'd only eaten maybe a fraction of what was out there. When his Mum and the rest of the village sent him off to meet the king of Heliodor, he wondered what other flavors he would find on the way. He couldn't wait to find out.

After all, he loved to eat.

* * *

Heliodor had been full of such wonderful smells and sights, a faint waft of roasting hens, brewing, bubbly drinks, the hint of sweets from a local bakery, it was more than Eleven could've ever dreamed of.

Sure, the food within the city weren't the fatty Bunnicorns or crisp Cruelcumbers that El discovered along the way, but they were something.

He'd taken his time to follow the scents to their origins, leading him to restaurants big and small, a bakery or two, stalls, and even someone's home one time.

It was all so delicious.

So why did the king have to be so rotten?

The dungeons reeked, dark and gray and a faint dripping of water kept echoing from an unknown source and Eleven could really go for his Mum's grilled mushrooms.

"'Luminary,'" the knight huffed, "we won't be deceived. We know your true nature, Darkspawn, and we won't let you destroy Heliodor and her people," and with that, he turned sharply on his heel along with the other castle guards and left.

El had stopped trying to ask questions when it was clear he wouldn't be getting an answer.

Lying in his cell, he heard a faint jingling from the cell across from him. He turned to face the prisoner in the opposite cell.

"You're the Luminary?" the stranger asked, and El caught that he had bright blue eyes.

Eleven nodded hesitantly. The stranger seemed to perk up at that and walked up closer to the bars.

"Believe it or not, a seer told me I'd meet you here-"

"And now, delicious gruel for the lovely prisoners," a guard coming down the hall interrupted the conversation, carrying something that looked inedible.

As soon as the guard stepped in close to set down the food, the stranger reached out of the bars and bashed the guard's head against them, knocking him out cold.

"He's not dead, he'll be up soon. Let's get moving," the hooded teen opened his lock and quickly opened El's cell, too.

They grabbed their valuables and then took off down the hole that the other had dug out.

Sneaking around the guards wasn't easy. In fact, they'd gotten cornered fairly easily.

A group of guards approached from one side of the bridge they stood on while the other group closed in from the opposite side. The ground felt like it was rumbling, but it may have been the force of all the soldiers marching towards them.

Either that, or it was El's stomach. He was pretty hungry. (He pictured Gemma admonishing him about his eating habits again.)

But then the ground rumbled again heavily, and suddenly they were falling down, down, and down.

* * *

It was gigantic.

It was a dragon.

Crystal black scales covered the expanse of its body, sharp spines down the back and wings cradling its body and it was _So. Damned. Big._

El faintly felt that same rush he felt on top of the Tor, of knowing how big the world was and just how small he really was. That same rush he was sure Gemma felt as they stared out onto the world side by side. There was so much out there, and this was a part if it.

He wondered how dragon would taste.

He wondered what his Mum would say if he brought dragon meat home.

"The hell is a dragon doing down here?!" the stranger harshly whispered.

An eye bigger than both of them snapped open.

El stared at his ally. Those icy blue eyes sheepishly stared back.

And then they ran.

(Later, when the other teen took off his hood and their eyes met, backs to the Heliodorian guards and a cliff's edge at their feet, Eleven found that Erik's trust filled him up just as well as a good meal.)

* * *

Erik stared at him.

"It's good," he insisted.

"It's _monster_ ," Erik countered.

Until now, they'd rationed what food they'd bought from downtown Heliodor, Erik insisting that it would be enough to hold them down until they'd reached Cobblestone.

He'd underestimated El's stomach. Gemma did always say he was like a bottomless pit when it came to food. He wasn't offended, because he felt like it at times.

Now by the campfire of the Manglegrove, Eleven stood over a basin of roiling hot stew composed of Slimes, Lips meat, those Gryphons they defeated earlier that day, and Funghoul mushrooms.

Meat was hard to come by back in Cobblestone, as the only local monster with any were the Stark Ravens and there was nowhere near enough safe grazing space for livestock besides a few chickens. The Needlers were full of stuffing and cotton, good for clothing and the like, but never for food.

Lips were new. It was less meaty and something closer to seafood. He remembered reading something about preparing snails, and the Lips seemed closer to that than any other traditional meat. Still, he wasn't complaining. There was Gryphon meat there too. This was a new meal to try, and when they got back to Cobblestone, maybe he could pass on the recipe to his Mum. Eleven looked into the pot, watching as it bubbled up, full to the brim with meats and veggies mixing up together.

It smelled heavenly, so why did Erik look so green?

"Why else would I take the Gryphons with us?"

"I don't know! Materials maybe?"

"Just try some," El insisted. For someone who'd spent who knew how long in a dungeon, the thief sure was picky with his food.

Erik turned even more green.

"No, nu-uh, not happening," he turned away, "I'll just wait until we get to your village."

Eleven didn't like to argue. He hated to waste food, too. His Mum always said that a clean plate  
was a happy plate, and El stood by that. Instead, he scooped up a good amount of stew into a  
makeshift bowl and pressed it into the thief's hands.  
Erik looked down at the bowl in horror. El rolled his eyes. He was so dramatic. The thief looked back up at El.

He stared back challengingly.

Erik took a nervous gulp and brought a finger into the bowl to taste. He brought the finger to his lips and closed his eyes tight as if it were gonna eat him and not the other way around.

And Eleven watched as ice blue eyes opened in shock.

"What the hell," Erik said.

"What the hell. El. What is this?" the thief repeated, staring at Eleven with a priceless expression.

"Stew," he replied nonchalantly. He watched his new friend from the corner of his eyes as he brought the bowl to his lips and drank the whole thing in one sitting, and El reaped in the satisfaction.

"Eleven," Erik threw the bowl to the side and gripped both of his shoulders so that they were facing each other.

Sea blue eyes met ice blue.

"You are going to cook every monster we meet."

Eleven couldn't help the soft laugh that escaped him.

Got him.

* * *

The Luminary ate monsters. It took Erik a while to wrap his head around it.

It sounded wrong. Monsters were monsters were monsters.

But it tasted so good. It was like there was a world out there he was missing out on and only now with the Luminary's guidance was he able to see the light.

Ever since that night in the Manglegrove, Erik couldn't look at monsters the same way ever again. Not after that incredible stew that was just salty enough to be addictive and just savory enough to make Erik go back for seconds and even thirds. That wasn't to say that El didn't go back for that much, because he did even more until the whole pot was empty. Erik thanked his lucky stars that his comrade could cook so well.

Or maybe it was just that Erik had never had a home cooked meal before. It was one of the two.

Each monster after that, especially every new kind that they saw, was packed up and later prepared for the night's dinner. There were some that Eleven had never eaten before, like little Shamhatwitches that had fatty cuts of meat that just fell apart after a good roast on the fire. Erik could tell immediately that it was going to be a new favorite, and the jerky they'd made with the leftover kept well in their bags.

El was talkative when it came to food, but became silent like a mouse on everything else. It was like meeting a whole other person, and Erik found himself learning more and more about how to cook from his new friend, finding a surprising passion in himself for it, too.

Some dishes came out as failures, but they weren't freakishly horrible like Erik thought they'd be. They were like normal (and it was weird to say 'normal,' because monsters on the menu quickly became the new normal), where some flavors just didn't mix, like the fizziness of a Bubble Slime and the leanness of a Dracky. And every time they failed, they talked about it over some jerky and some foraged plants instead. Just eating was an adventure in of itself.

They now laid next to each other beside the campfire, outside in the Hotto Steppe. They were going to check out Hotto the next morning, preferring to settle down for the night. Eleven had been silent for most of the day, and Erik couldn't blame him. Not when his village laid in shambles.

It still filled him with anger, knowing what Heliodor did to El. The other teen had quickly become something of a friend, so to see everything taken away from him in am instant, for those eyes to become blank like that...

(It reminded him of himself, losing everything in just a moment, a flash of gold.)

It was unfair. Life was unfair, and boy Erik knew it, but it was different with his companion. It was different for the brunette who was so animated, curiosity gleaming in those blue eyes as he pointed to a new monster and suggested that _maybe they could roast it with along with some Medicinal Herbs because it looks like it might be sweet and gamey-_

"I want to eat a dragon," Eleven said out of the blue, snapping Erik out if his thoughts.

Erik looked over at El, who held something sad and desperate and unspoken in those deep blue eyes. It filled Erik with... something.

"Okay," Erik said without thinking twice about it, "we'll eat a dragon, then."

(He wondered if this had something to do with his village.)

He rolled onto his stomach and held his head up with his arms.

"It'll be our own little Dragon Quest," he forcefully grinned to make the air lighter and almost faltered at the hopeful expression El gave him. When the Luminary looked at a nobody like Erik like that, stars in his eyes, it made Erik feel like they could really do this, like he was worth something.

Then Erik actually thought about it.

Erik pictured what it would be like, to be able to eat something as big as the monster that chased them through the dungeons. It seemed impossible, a fight like that against a beast so huge. But the victory of the fight, combined with the smell of meat in a flavorful, savory stew (or it could be cut into steak, or maybe ground up like meatballs... El was getting to him) would make it all worth it. El's happiness would make it all worth it.

He kind of wanted at eat a dragon, too, it seemed.

For someone who cooked and ate so much, Eleven was rather thin. It made Erik worry, looking at him lugging around a sword way too big for his scrawny body.

"Hey, that gives me an idea," Erik popped off his elbows and lugged himself over to his bag. It wasn't too far away, of course. A thief always kept his treasures close. He pulled out two swords, having nabbed them off an unsuspecting guard back in Heliodor.

"How about we learn to use these together," he suggested, "I heard there's a move called Dragon Slash that works great on those guys."

El looked up at him with wonder still in those deep blue eyes that made Erik feel a little funny.

"Okay," the brunette nodded.

Erik was best with a knife in his hand, but anything to get El to stop using that gigantic greatsword. Anything to make him stop looking so defeated.

And hey, the more tricks up his sleeve, the better.

(Erik wondered what else he was missing that the Luminary could show him. Maybe, eventually, El could show him that forgiveness, too.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hhhhh this game oozes charm in every corner :0 After beating it, I literally bought DQ I, II, III, and VIII. Beat I and II, started III and XIII, no regrets. Where was this series all my life?  
> Anyways, thanks for reading! Idk how far into the game I'll get past like getting everyone after the Fall™. Any comments, ideas, or feedback is always appreciated! ♥♥♥


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hotto has good food. And Veronica, her too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heya, so I decided to change the relationship to tag to Erik&Luminary because honestly it's gonna be more friendshippy than shippy. Hope you don't mind >.<  
> Also, thank you all for your sweet comments last chapter <3 I'm so glad people like the idea!

Hotto was full of unique sorts of foods. Although they had quite a large forge and steaming hot springs, the first thing Eleven did was follow the savory scent wafting through the streets into a bar.

"I'll have that," El pointed to another customer's meal. It looked good, packed with all sorts of greens and noodles and filled with shining broth.

"This is called ramen," the barman said, sliding down a steaming bowl of noodle soup, "This one's Hotto's specialty. Hope you enjoy it."

El picked up a pair of chopsticks and got to work.

The noodles were smooth, easily slurped down. The broth was tangy and full of spice. The meat–pork, if he was right–was tender and fell apart at any semblance of force. Mushrooms that were stringy along with bits of onions here and there adding that much needed bite. And an egg that was so very needed and tied everything together...!

Eleven wondered why Hotto was so famous for their hot springs when their food was like this.

"Dude, how'd you finish so quick?!" Erik asked at Eleven's empty bowl.

"It was good," the Luminary answered.

It was more than good. It was delicious and Eleven had room for more. He ordered another food from a picture of on the menu, and Erik pointed to something else. El didn't really mind what they would get, he liked surprises.

A new plate was set in front of him and the barman gave a short bow before attending to other customers.

Dango, they called this one. Little balls of white rice cakes on sticks and doused in a sauce of some kind. Eleven picked up a stick and gave it a shot.

"It's sweet!" his eyes widened in shock.

Sweet was an understatement. With the syrup it was drowning in, the little rice cakes were the essence of sugar. Except the cakes were soft like the insides of freshly baked bread, just a little mushy and plenty chewy. El took another bite.

"There's fish in here?" Erik looked into his right rice ball.

El took a peek at his companion's meal. The rice balls had a triangular shape along with a vegetable wrapping of some sort, but it'd caught Erik's attention somehow. Looking on the inside, it seemed that there was more than meets the eye. El would have to try some later.

"You like it?" he asked his friend.

Erik took another bite and looked contemplative.

"...Yeah," the thief gave his input, "you know, this is giving me ideas. We should pack some rice with us so we can-"

And El's attention was caught as quickly as a butterfly with a net. The local food was good–great even, but El imagined what it would be like to add in the all the new flavors they'd discovered along the way. Exploring the sauna can come later.

* * *

They said that the biggest things came in the smallest packages.

Looking at Veronica, Erik was reminded of that rice ball he'd tried earlier. Veronica was kind of like that. A cute little girl on the outside, but packed with abrasiveness instead of that tasty fish filling.

Traveling with her through the Cryptic Crypt wasn't all bad, though. She was tough as nails and she worked well with a whip, even though she explained that she mainly stuck to magic.  
Veronica was looking for her sibling and while she hid it well, he could see the slight worry in her eyes and Erik... could get that.

She was an abrasive little rice ball, but a rice ball all the same with a soft, tasty filling. Not like the salmon filling that was in his earlier. No, it was definitely something spicier than that.

That didn't mean that the little mage wasn't a brat, though. Because she was. She definitely was.

* * *

The Luminary kept reaching into his bag and snacking on some kind of jerky. He was silent, but not in a offstandish way. He just didn't seem to have much to say, and Erik kept conversation with her well enough.

They came face to face with a Walking Corpse but quickly made short work of it between El and the thief's swordsmanship, alongside Veronica's whip.

Eleven made a face at the fallen corpse, standing over it with a contemplating expression.

The thief jumped as if he was stung by something and quickly pulled him aside, hastily whispering something that the other eventually nodded to, and then the rest of the trek went on silently.

...Until El pulled out another mound of jerky from his bag and kept chewing. (How much was in there?!)

It seemed Veronica was staring for too long because the brunette turned and asked her with a handful of jerky "want some?"

"If you insist," she held out a hand and got some of that jerky.

It was different from what she was used to in Arboria, sweet and chewy, but then again, she was sure that food was different outside of her home. (And that man at the bar wouldn't let her in because of her appearance.)

Not bad, though. She was sure Serena would like it, too.

* * *

"We of Arboria swear to protect you. While we live, none shall harm you," Serena and her sister said together.

And then the earth rumbled.

"Excuse me," he looked sheepish as he held his stomach.

Veronica gaped.

"How?! You were _just_ eating a second ago!" she pointed an accusing finger at the brunette.

"It's not very filling."

"It was plenty filling, you bottomless pit!"

Serena giggled.

It seemed her sister had warmed up to them. It seemed she didn't have to worry, then. Veronica was a good judge of character.

* * *

With Connie's father returned to her and a new objective given to them, the Rainbough rumored to be in Gallopolis, the group had struck out south.

Camp for the night was filled with the sound of a harp as Serena played her favorite song and the harsh sizzle of whatever the Luminary was cooking up. Eleven stared into the pot over the fire with a focus similar to how he was in a fight.

He suddenly pulled out golden brown triangles from the pot, one after the other and filling up a plate with them.

"Soup's on," Erik called out and each member of the party grabbed a freshly fried... triangle thing.

Veronica didn't really know what it was, nor did she really care because it was late, she was hungry, and the Luminary just seemed to keep food to cook on hand.

Crisp, juicy, tender. That crunch of the crisp shell, the inside stuffed with soft rice, and suddenly–some kind of a meat on the inside! It was light, similar to chicken. And to think the brunette made this in a pot over a campfire!

She was glad that the Luminary was someone who could cook.

Erik and Eleven watched them expectantly.

"Well? How is it?" Erik asked.

"It's delicious," Serena praised.

Veronica nodded in agreement. She just hoped it didn't get to their heads.

"Might I ask, what kind if meat is this?" her sister continued, "We only really keep chicken and lamb in Arboria."

The thief and the Luminary shared a look again.

"Garuda meat," Eleven said so quietly she almost didn't catch it over the crackle of the fire.

Almost.

She stared at him. Those deep blue eyes met hers.

He wasn't joking.

What.

The.

Hell.

Veronica spat it out.

"Well why the bloody hell didn't you tell us first?!" she all but screeched.

Monster, monster, monster! Disgusting! Gross!

They fed them monsters and she and Serena were none the wiser!

"Because you wouldn't have tried it if we told you!" Erik protested.

Her sister looked a bit ill.

"Here we go again," Erik rolled his eyes, "You said it yourself it was good, right, pipsqueak?"

"That was _before_!" she roared, "This is... you're...!"

Oh, how Veronica wished she was big again so that she could smack some sense into the blue haired thief.

"It's safe to eat," El mumbled to the ground.

"You don't do that to people!" she settled for stomping her feet and pretended that the ground was Erik and Eleven.

At least Eleven had the decency to look ashamed.

"...It was quite good," Serena softly said, and Veronica looked at her sister in shock because she did not just say that that _monster_ tasted good!

"Isn't it?" Eleven suddenly spoke up, loud and with a brightness in his eyes that wasn't there just a second ago, "Ever since I saw Hotto's onigiri, I'd wanted to try mixing it up. The Garudas are fatty but the meat they do have is soft and the She-Slimes here melt into oil, if you would believe it. I-" he went on and on, and Serena looked so lost as she nodded and nodded, trying to keep up with him because he's _finally talking_.

It was like a switch was flipped.

Now with the campfire full of animated chatter from El and a quip here and there from Erik ( _"I dunno, meat's not doing it for me. We should try fish next time."_ ), Veronica looked back at her plate of crispy triangle balls.

...She'd admit it, monsters didn't taste half bad.

She snuck another bite.

* * *

Food was tastiest when it was shared, El found. He remembered how one time when he was little he'd kept all the snacks to himself and Gemma cried because she wanted some, too. The snacks didn't taste so good then, not when there was a pit (and not the bottomless kind) in his stomach at the sight of her tears.

Ever since then, he never minded sharing a bite. It was much better to see Gemma's face light up when he broke a slime popsicle in two, or Erik finish a bowl in record time.

But he didn't like thinking about home for too long, nor about the mark on his left hand. He didn't like thinking about what they all must've been thinking when they... Instead, he focused on the sisters walking in front of him under the desert sun.

He still felt a little bad about hiding the whole monster thing from the twins, but he wasn't sure how they'd take to it. After all, even Erik, who'd spent time in the Heliodorian dungeons, was reluctant to try when he knew it. But now that they were all on the same page, Serena passed along all sorts of recipes to him once she learned that he loved to cook. (And well, that was mostly because he loved to eat.)

As they made their way further and further into the beginnings of desert, El thought he might share something.

He wanted to eat a dragon. A big dragon.

(This was just something that he, as El, wanted to do. Nothing about this Luminary business, nothing about saving the world, nothing about Heliodor or home or any of that. El just wanted to eat a dragon.)

"It sounds lovely," Serena clapped her hands together.

"We're going to need to be a lot stronger if we ever want to take on a _dragon_ ," Veronica said with a vicious grin.

And El was filled with something warm because they wanted to eat it, too.

"Do you think we could grill it?" Serena inquired with a finger to her lips.

"See, that's what we've been wondering," Erik jumped in, "We thought about roasting it, but El makes a mean stew, so-"

He wanted to eat a dragon, and he wanted to do it with his new friends by his side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tbh dango are wayyy too sweet for me, or at least, the kind of dango I've had :/ I prefer me some tiramisu.  
> Also, imagine deep fried onigiri. Is that a thing 0.0 I know baked onigiri is a thing, but this just sounds sooo goood. >.>  
> Anyways, thanks for reading and I hope you liked it ^^ Comments, feedback, ideas, and stuff are always appreciated!! ♥♥♥


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